Tobacco guiding machine



K. A. KRBER TOBACCO GUIDING MACHINE April 22, 1941.

Filed Oct. l1, 1938 Patented Apr. 22, 1941 2,238,979 'ronacco GUIDING MACHINE Kurt Adolf Krber, Dresden-Oberloschwitz, Germany, assigner,

by mesne assignments, to J. C.

Muller N. V., Rotterdam, Netherlands Application October 11, 1938, Serial No. 234,477 In Germany October 18, 1937 2 Claims.

This invention relates to tobacco guiding machines, in which generally a tobacco conduit, which is shallow, supplies its tobacco to a conveying means.

'I'he object of the invention is to overcome the objections of shaking up and down, the said conduit or part thereof; vto overcome certain defects in connection with the conveying` of the tobacco, and to overcome certain disadvantageous features in connection with the cutting of the tobacco fed by the conveying means. In addition, the object is to provide an improved iieecing device.

For this purpose, the invention consists of an y improved fleecing device, in which a pivoted wiper concentrically arranged with the spiked roller, moves to and fro at considerable speed, and in its preferred embodiment, the wiper acts as a wall to a tobacco spreader from which the spiked roller obtains its tobacco.

The invention consists further in providing an openable and pivoted wall for the conduit which conducts the tobacco from a spiked roller and wiper to the conveying means; said pivoted wall extending close to the conveying means, and beyond another wall of the conduit, whereby the to and fro movement of said wall permits the tobacco in the conduit to be aired, and to freely descend, and then be pressed before it is pushed by said wall out of the conduit, and beneath the said other wall of the conduit spaced from said conveying means, said forced-out tobacco being delivered to the conveying means, and conveyed from said conduit on the conveying means.

The various parts are so coordinated in action and relative speed, that from the beginning of the operation, the tobacco is treated so as to be free from lumps, which enables it to be uniformly distributed and shaped into a substantially equally dense mass, so that the various cut off portions are of assured density and eiiicient distribution.

The invention will be further described in connection with the various embodiments shown in the drawing, and will be, finally, claimed.

In the accompanying drawing:

Figure 1 is a longitudinal section, partly in elevation, of the improved machine embodying the invention;

Figure 2 is a diagrammatic side view to show the action of the knife,

Figure 3 is a section on line 3-3 of Figure l.

Similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout the various views.

Referring to Figure 1, the tobacco T is contained in a tobacco spreader I, in which a known tobacco spike roller 2 is arranged which rotates in the direction of the arrow 2a there shown. 'I'he roller 2 takes along during its rotation, tobacco from the spreader I, inea manner to form a tobacco fleece upon the roller 2. In accordance with this invention, excess iieece is removed from the roller 2 by take-oif member 3, which forms the front boundary wall of the tobacco space of the tobacco spreader. 'I'his wall 3 for stroking olf the tobacco from the roller 2, is supported by a double armed lever 4 which is in turn supported by the shaft 5 of the roller 2. The lower free end of the lever 4 is pivoted to a lever arm 6 which acts as a crank rod, and which is actuated by the crank disc 1, rotating on the shaft 1a. The free end of the arm `6 is pivoted at 6a to the crank disc 1 eccentrically on the center shaft 1a. Known mechanism to rotate the roller 2, are utilized to rotate the same, but these are not shown in the drawing, as being within the skill of a mechanic.

Measured in respect to the speed of rotation of the roller 2, the speed of tobacco removing wall 3 with its wiping edge is such that the edge moves with relatively high speed concentric to the roller 2. By this coaction and the relative speeds, a very fine smoothing of the tobacco takes place on the roller 2, without balling of the tobacco in the angle :c formed by the wall 3 and roller 2, which has been found to take place when a roller instead of such a Wall with impinging edge is used.

This action of the wall 3 devised to obtain a most eilcient fleece on the roller 2, now is followed by the action of a spiked roller 8 upon' the fleece on the roller 2. The roller 8 rotates in the direction of the arrow 8a and in a direction opposite to that of the roller 2. The roller 8 is rotated by means of known operating mechanism, connected like roller 2, and disc 'I, to the main drive.

The tobacco leaving rollers 2 and 8, drops by gravity into a substantially vertical conduit 9, and after passing therethrough it falls upon the endless conveyor band I0, which moves in the direction of the arrow Ilia, and guides the rtobacco flow towards the knife 20.

The conduit 9 is made in accordance with the present invention, in the form of a structure which has a stationary front Wall I5, extending substantially perpendicularly from :the tobacco container in which the roller 8 is located, and the wall I5 has its lower extremity near to the belt I0, and separated therefrom about the height of the tobacco flow on the belt I0. To the stationary wall I5 are applied lateral walls extending rearwardly from the front wall I5, so as to form the side walls of the conduit. Within the side walls and spaced from the front wall I5, is a rear wall II, pivoted at I2 to the lowermost part of the wall of the tobacco spreader. .The rear wall thus pivoted at I2 is swingably supported, and Lin order to swing it to and fro, the rear of the rear wall is provided with a bracket IIa, supporting a pin or shaft upon which one end of a crank arm I3 is pivoted. The other end of the arm |3 is eccentrically disposed to the crank disc I4, and pivoted at 3a thereto, the disc |4 being rotated on the shaft I4a. A chain |4b passes over the sprocket |4c on the shaft |4a, and over the sprocket 1b. By the to and fro movement of the arm I3, the rear wall is swung to andi from full line position to dotted line position and back. The lower end of the rear wall |I extends to the upper conveying surface of the belt I0, so as to substantially contact therewith, and so that any tobacco on the upper surface of the belt is pushed along by the rear wall II forwardly and through the space between the lowermost edge of the wall I5 and the belt I0.

This improved conduit formed by the front wall I5 and swingable rear wall I I, has .the advantage that with every rearward movement of the wall |.I, an airing of the tobacco within the conduit takes place. By this, the descent of the tobacco is facilitated and made easy. Thereby, a slight accumulation of the tobacco takes place at the lower end of the conduit near the belt, and this is then compressed by the return swinging movement of rear wall II, by pressing the enclosed tobacco against the front wall I5. At the same time, the relatively compressed tobacco which has descended to the belt during the rearward swinging rnovement of the rear wall II, is pressed by the end of the rear wall I I, which protrudes beyond the lowermost end of the front wall I5, along the belt and in the forward direction of the arrow Illa, during the forward movement of the belt. The tobacco in this dense condition is then moved forward by the belt.

In frontof the front end of the belt IIJ, 'which passes over rolls I6 and I1, there is arranged a table portion I8 in advance of the roll I6, which receives the tobacco flow from the upper surface of the belt. As the moving tobacco now en counters a station-ary surface on the stationary table surface I8, the tobacco is made more dense. The tobacco fed by the belt pushes against this resisting tobacco on the table I8. This frictional resistance can be augmented by roughing the table surface as indicated by |9b. Preferably, the free forward end of the table I8 has adjacent thereto an angular member vIlla, the free end of which, in turn, is shaped to act as a cutting edge |9a, to cooperate with a knife edge 20. The length of the knife edge I9 and knife 2|] is equal to the width of the table I8. The knife 210 is a '.blade knife and is supported by an arm 2| at each of its ends, the arms 2| in turn being supported by a pivotal roller shaft 22 pivoted to the frame of the machine. The knife 20 thereby partakes of a circular movement, during which it contacts with the edge |9a, and cuts off the portion of the tobacco flow to the extent that it projects'beyond the edge |9a.

In respect to the edge |9a of the table I8, there is a supporting roller 3| having a space between it and the edge |9a upon which roller the tobacco projecting beyond thev edge Isa passes. This roller is fastened to a shaft 24 suitably supported, which is freely rotatable.

When, however, the

knife in its orbit comes within the sphere of the cutting edge |90. of the table I8, and by this action has separated the cut olf tobacco portion, the knife is carried along the supporting roller 3| concentrically thereto. In consequence, the tobacco portion so cut off resting on the supporting surface 3 I after reaching a certain inclined position, is guided off from and by the supporting surface,

-and reaches the hopper 25. From this it passes out of the discharge opening 26 into the collecting container 21 which takes each tobacco portion and moves it along to the next point of manipulation. The knife 20 coacts with the edge |9a and preferably a knife edge 20a is fastened at one side to a vertically moving member 30, or it can form also the under end of this member. Furthermore, there is provided a roller 3| with e. smooth surface, which rotates in the direction of the indicated arrow 3Ia, and forms the supporting surface for the tobacco pushed beyond the edge |9a.

The knife 20a is, with its supporting element 30, so governed, that it first partakes of a vertical movement and thereby separates the tobacco portion which has reached the supporting surface 3 I. In immediate action therewith. the knife makes a movement of such a kind that its cutting edge descending on the periphery of the roller, moves concentric with the roller 3|, and thereby remains in contact with the roller surface. This movement/takes place in the conveying direction of the tobacco layer, so that the knife 20a with the Wall 30 serves as a wiper, and wipes the separated tobacco portion from the roller 3| towards'the left, in the sense of Figure 2. At the end of the wiping movement, the knife finds itself with its carrier roller 3|), in the position indicated in dotted lines. Now the knife goes upwardly and so f'ar'that it is removed from the path of the freshly arrived tobacco on the roller 3|. Then the knife goes to the right, back to the cutting position and the cycle begins anew.

The mechanism for moving the knife 2 0 is shown in Figure 1 in dotted lines. Guide rails 6| and 62 guide a member 63 to which the knife support 2| is pivoted at 22. The member 63 has a lateral pin 64 engaged by a fork 65, which is moved to and fro by an arm 66 as indicated by the arrow 61, and moves the pivotal support to and fro as indicated by the arrow 10. Suitable means timed with the shaft 43, for instance, bring about the to and fro movement of the arm 66. To the arm 2| is pivotally connected at 1| a depending link 12, which extends downwardly so as to connect by suitable linkage either with the arm 66 or with the shaft 43 in timed relationship. Thereby, the knife is moved as explained, and as shown by the arrows 14 down, 15 over the roller, 16 up, and 11 back to the initial position.

Actuating devices of known kind are shown in Figure 1. The shaft |4a supports a sprocket wheel 40 over which a chain 4| passes, which passes over a sprocket 42, on the main driving shaft 43, having a pulley wheel 44. The shaft 43 has a worm 45, engaging a gear 43a on a shaft 41 supported in bearings 43. On the shaft 41 is a gear 43a engaging the worm 43, and bevel gear 49 engaging a conical gear 50 on a vertical shaft 5| held by bearings 52. To the shaft 5| a bevel 53 engages a bevel 54 on a shaft 55 which carries the drive pulley |1 of the belt I0, which passes also over the end pulley I6. To give the knife 20 the movement as described, guide rails 6| and 62 are supported by the frame, and these guide a guide 63, upon which the shaft 22 is supported, which is moved to and fro as shown by the doubie-headed arrow 10. On the guide device 63 is a pin 64, which is engaged by a fork 85 on an arm 66, which is moved by the guide 63 to and fro as shown by the double-headed arrow 61 whereby the knife 20 is moved from full line to dotted line position. On the arm 2|, a pin 1| is supported upon which the member 12, is connected and this member 12 is moved up and down as shown by the double-headed arrow, by mechanism not shown, to control the height oi' movement of the knife.

Divisional applications Serial Numbers 319,989 and 319,990, have been filed by applicant on February 21, 1940.

It is obvious that various changes and modifications may be made in the details of construction and design of the above specifically described embodiments of this invention without departing from the spirit thereof, such changes and modiiications being restricted only by the means for moving the pivoted movable wall .towards and from the stationary wall, for airing the tobacco in the conduit, enabling it to descend, pressing the fallen tobacco, and forcing it out of the conduit to the conveyor, the stationary wall being spaced from the conveyor, and the forced tobacco being. moved through the space between the stationarywall and conveyor by the movement of the pivoted movable wall.

2. In a tobacco guiding machine, the combination of a tobacco spreader, a spiked roller for the spreader, a supporting member extending above the spiked roller, a Wiper above the roller and pivotally supported in said member, a conduit below the roller for receiving tobacco from the wiper and roller, said conduit being formed by an openable and pivoted wall and another wall, said pivoted wall extending beyond the other wall or the conduit, a conveyor belt substantially in contact with said openable and pivoted wall to receive tobacco from the conduit, said tobacco being moved by the pivoted wall in the direction of movement of the conveyor, means for moving the wiper to and fro in respect to the roller, means for moving to and fro the openable and pivoted wall of the conduit, and common actuating means for the last two named means.

KURT ADoLF KRBER. 

